NASA has released this gloriously shot Ultra HD fly-through of the International Space Station, seen through the view of a fisheye lens.
Reminiscent of scenes from science fiction, but very much a part of the here and now, the latest ISS video is haunting in a certain way, which is seasonally appropriate at least. It also raises the question, and not for the first time, whether or not there is a workable option for ultimately preserving the Station as a living museum in orbit rather than splashing it into the Pacific a decade from now.
Perhaps far-fetched at the moment, one has to wonder based on the timelines offered by SpaceX and Blue Origin if the mid to late 2020’s will see a steadily increasing number of people, many of them tourists, heading into LEO. If that is the case, then looking back ten more years, this time from 2030’s, it would be a shame if the Station was thrown away only a few years before it could have been a unique piece of orbital history, kept safely in position by a radically lowered transportation and support infrastructure.
